.The Impact of Digital Transformation in Healthcare

Technology is transforming the way people bank, travel and shop. But, it has yet to make significant inroads into the healthcare industry. Digital transformation in healthcare is a building block of a patient-focused approach to healthcare.

It will help healthcare providers streamline operations, understand what the patient requires, build loyalty and trust and offer a better user experience. Moreover, collecting and extracting data provided by digital communications will prove valuable.

Understanding the needs and behaviors of target users, healthcare providers will analyze new ways to add value by building loyalty and trust. As a healthcare provider, you should understand that keeping up with digital transformation in healthcare can be overwhelming.

Selecting which technology is worth investing in might be challenging for a healthcare leader. Adapting to the digital era means avoiding outdated business processes and believing that technological disruption will deliver significant results. In this article, we shall be discussing the role of emerging technologies in the digital transformation of healthcare and what it requires to develop a viable healthcare tech solution. Here’s how different technology trends can contribute to digital transformation in the healthcare industry 1. Telemedicine

Remember the time when you would schedule an appointment with the doctor and wait for a couple of hours in the hospital or clinic? After getting the tests done, you would have to wait for many days to get results and revisit the doctor. Thankfully, that’s the bygone era.

Many innovative solutions are transforming the way patients interact with healthcare professionals. From searching a doctor to scheduling a virtual appointment and communicating with doctors via video or voice call, telemedicine solutions enable people’s access to health professionals on demand. One of the best examples of telehealth technology is virtual appointments between patients and doctors.

Remote or rural areas where access to healthcare is limited, virtual appointments facilitate patients to communicate with doctors. Patients facing mobility challenges can use telemedicine to interact with health professionals.

Telehealth technology can also be used to manage patients at high risk and enable health professionals to track the patient’s conditions and activities remotely via IoT-based health sensors and wearable devices. It is essential to consider that the telemedicine app or solution should comply with legislation in your targeted regions or country. We have built a telemedicine app for healthcare institutes that facilitate doctors to interact with both existing and new patients and patients to communicate with existing doctors via video, voice or text chat.

2. Using Big Data in Healthcare

Big Data is transforming the way we analyze, leverage and manage data in every industry. Healthcare is one of the promising industries where it can be implemented to avoid preventable diseases, enhance the quality of life, reduce treatment costs and forecast outbreaks of epidemics. Health professionals can collect a massive amount of data and find the best strategies to use the data.

Using Big Data in Healthcare can have positive and life-saving outcomes. With emerging technologies, it has become easier to not only collect essential healthcare data but also convert it into valuable insights to provide better care. Using data-driven insights, health professionals can predict and solve an issue before it gets late.

3. Internet of Things

Before the introduction of the Internet of Things, patient and doctor interactions were only restricted to physical visits and text communications. Doctors or hospitals had no way to track the patient’s health continuously and take action accordingly. IoT-enabled devices facilitate remote monitoring in the healthcare industry, unlocking the potential to keep patients healthy and safe and allowing physicians to provide better care. Since IoT has made interactions with doctors efficient and easier, it has improved patient satisfaction and engagement. Also, remote monitoring of patients’ health helps in preventing re-admissions and decreasing the duration of stay in the hospital.

IoT can also reduce healthcare costs and improves treatment outcomes. IoT is changing the healthcare industry by remodeling people’s interaction in providing healthcare solutions.

Implementation of IoT in healthcare benefits physicians, hospitals, patients and insurance companies. IoT can contribute to digital transformation in healthcare with the massive amount of data generated by IoT devices. IoT technology has a simple four-step architecture that can imply to any of the industries. 4. Virtual Reality Virtual Reality is a technology that uses the computer-generated simulation of a 3-D image or environment that allows a person to hear, see and interact using special equipment, for example, headsets. The technology creates a simulated environment where users can immerse in. Unlike traditional user interfaces, VR takes users inside a virtual experience instead of only displaying a screen. The Healthcare industry is adopting virtual reality to deliver better care to patients. For example, one of the patients was getting chemotherapy every week for around 6 years to treat colon cancer. She used to spend her 4.5 hours during the chemo session reading books, chatting or watching TV. During infusion, she sometimes wanted to go to beaches to relax. Unfortunately, she was unable to go in real life as her skin was too sensitive to go out in the sunlight. But Virtual Reality made her dream come true by simulating a beach-like environment where she could feel like she was sitting on the beach and enjoying the sunbath. She is not only the one who is fond of using virtual reality in a healthcare setting, but many patients love this experience when getting treated. From the clinic to medical rooms, the virtual reality is exploding and expected to continue to grow in the coming years. According to the research by GlobeNewsWire, the market for Virtual Reality in Healthcare will reach $7 billion by 2026. Healthcare is still in its early stages of the technology; therefore, the healthcare industry has started to realize where it can be used and challenges posed by the VR. 5. Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence simplifies the lives of doctors, patients and hospital admins by doing tasks that are usually done by humans at a fraction of cost and in less time. From finding links between genetic codes to driving surgery-assisting robots, surveying chronic diseases and conducting the risk assessment, AI is reinventing and revitalizing modern healthcare through machines that can comprehend, predict, learn and act. AI provides a number of advantages over clinical decision-making and traditional analytics. Learning algorithms can become more accurate and precise when they interact with training data. It allows humans to gain unprecedented insights into care processes, treatment variability, patient outcomes and diagnostics. Conclusion Digital transformation is an ongoing process and new trends are emerging in the healthcare industry with each passing day. When you pursue digital transformation in healthcare, you need to think beyond the technology needed to drive innovation. You can select the technology you want to implement to deliver better patient care from the above list of technologies based on your needs and requirements. If you want to build a technology solution for your healthcare startup or healthcare institute, consult our healthcare software developers who have expertise in different technologies, including AI, IoT, VR, Big Data and Blockchain.